Taz Vapor Bar owner Tanner Preece points out JUUL-compatible cartridges to a customer that came from Boulder seeking flavored vaping products Dec. 19 in Louisville. Vaping supply stores in Louisville and Lafayette have seen Boulder adults who use flavored vaping liquid frequenting their stores since Boulder’s flavor ban took effect.

Boulder’s flavored vapor ban has made the voter-approved 40% city sales tax on e-cigarettes and associated nicotine products set to take hold in January a moot point for local small businesses.

“You know, when they passed the flavor ban, that was really the nail in the coffin for the small businesses. We didn’t even have time for the tax to take effect before (a business closure occurred),” said Amanda Wheeler, vice president of Rocky Mountain Smoke Free Alliance, which represents Colorado vaping retailers. “As far as small businesses, 95% of our sales come from flavored products. … Anybody that runs a vape shop, without breaking the law, there is no way to survive in a post-flavor ban environment.”

The city, before voters in November passed the new tax on vaping products, banned all flavored vaping products from being sold in the city. That action came in the midst of a nationwide breakout of a sometimes fatal vaping-related lung illness federal officials have increasingly tied to vitamin E acetate, an additive in some marijuana cannabinoid-containing e-cigarettes.

Boulder also raised the legal age to purchase tobacco products to 21, a move lauded by vaping industry leaders and business owners, and since replicated by Broomfield, Superior, Lafayette and Louisville. But so far Boulder is the only city in the area to ban flavored vapor, although a City Council member suggested in December that Louisville examine flavor regulations and additional vaping taxes, as well.

Boulder Valley School District, students of which reportedly use vapor at rates higher than state and national averages, pushed for the change, and its officials have anecdotally noticed less usage since the outbreak of the vaping-related illness and institution of Boulder’s new restrictions.

District spokesman Randy Barber and Director of Health Services Stephanie Faren said the new ordinances narrowing vapor availability, along with the outbreak of the illnesses, has helped students shift their previous perceptions of the products as safe.

“I think what we’ve been hearing from our nurses as they’re meeting with our students is that’s the thing (the illnesses) that has come out as the factor with kids saying, ‘Hey, wait a minute, maybe this isn’t as harmless as we were led to believe,’” Faren said. “… What we’re hearing from the nurses and the folks working with kids is they’re questioning a lot more. Now, I think there is a lot more critical thinking going into it.”

Barber spoke to the impact of the new ordinances on youth opinion.

“We’ve welcomed whatever (area municipalities) have been willing to do” to restrict vapor access, Barber said. “It’s one step further and it disrupts this idea (vapor is safe).”

Consumers residing in Boulder are doing exactly as predicted by owners of vapor businesses, which have begun to thin since the city banned all flavored nicotine vapor products from being sold starting mid-October, with a grace period allowing menthol flavors to stay on shelves through the end of the year.

That is, customers are heading over to Boulder’s neighboring municipalities like Louisville and Lafayette, where flavored vapor remains legal, to pick up their preferred products. With the added business of some new Boulder customers, along with a bounce back as more information has been disclosed on the cause of the illnesses, some stores are starting to recover from the slowdown that coincided with the health concerns.

“Due to a lot of media coverage about the vaping deaths, everybody’s sales took a hit,” Wheeler said. “Our Lafayette member, their sales were down in August and September. But then they started to see some of the effect from the spillover of the Boulder customers. Between September and October, their sales went up 11% from Boulder residents coming to Lafayette. From October to November, they went up another 12% from Boulder customers coming to their Lafayette store. They’re not the underage users that Boulder was talking about. They’re legal adults.”

A Louisville member of Rocky Mountain Smoke Free Alliance has experienced a similar trend, she said.

Tanner Preece, owner of Louisville’s Taz Vapor store, also has noticed more customers bringing him business from Boulder.

“We’re not supportive of taking away flavors. It would completely shut us down,” Preece said. “I think (the Boulder ban is going to be) a huge issue with counterfeit (products). That’s what comes with such heavy regulation. It’s going to cause kids to buy things online from dumb places. … It turns into that if it’s illegal, and you can’t do it with big labs and expensive equipment, you’re left with no choice but to make a meth lab in the back of your RV and make e-juice with it. It would be unintelligent of the government to make flavors nonviable.”

Wheeler said business would be viable under a 40% sales tax and a 21 and older purchase age limit without the ban. She said most vapor businesses that rely on selling flavors are proponents of stricter marketing regulations that prevent vaping companies from targeting underage consumers, such as prohibiting certain flavors and flavor names clearly aimed at youth, along with 21 and older age limits and city business licensing systems that hit stores caught selling to underage consumers with severe penalties.

“When people talk about flavors being named Unicorn Tears, what do unicorn tears taste like?” Wheeler said. “It’s a marketing gimmick and the kind of marketing gimmick our organization does not condone.”

Boulder Councilman Aaron Brockett believes the city’s regulation of flavors has been effective, despite some consumers being able to still obtain flavors just outside city limits.

“Certainly the impact to the local businesses was unfortunate, for sure,” Brockett said. “The biggest target of this initiative was youth vaping, particularly underage folks. While someone who might vape flavors in their 30s can easily hop in their car and go to Louisville, it presents a significant barrier to teens.”

Boulder is unlikely to peel back its recently imposed restrictions in light of the new information on the questionable ingredients in the vapor products tied to the illnesses, Brockett believes, and he hesitated to say it would do so with a statewide move to 21 and up for purchasing tobacco alongside tighter marketing control.

“I think we’re likely to say this is the right thing for our town and stick to it,” Brockett said. “What we’re finding is that vaping, while it may be a smoking cessation device for some people, it’s resulting in far more people using tobacco regularly than before vaping was available. Having marketing restrictions would be an improvement, but fundamentally those flavors are appealing because of the flavor itself.”